FIFTY SHADES ST PREPARES TO SPANK RETAIL

As you’ve probably noticed, two songs from Republic’s Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, due out on 2/10, have whipped up some action on the iTunes singles chart recently: Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” (currently Top 10) and The Weeknd’s “Earned It” (now Top 15). Both tracks have just started at radio, with Goulding at Pop and Hot AC and The Weeknd at Rhythm and Urban, and both have made huge jumps at Shazam of late.

“Love Me” was penned by hitmaking overlord Max Martin, and is the first song the Swedish genius has crafted exclusively for a film.

Republic EVP/GM West Coast Tom Mackay detached himself from his bondage harness long enough to chat with us about the hotly anticipated ST, which accompanies the breathlessly awaited film adaptation (hitting on Valentine’s Day, sweetly enough) of the bestselling book—which has had female readers blushing over their Chardonnay since its publication.

“The beautiful thing about the film is that music plays an integral part from start to finish,” Mackay notes, explaining that the flick opens with Annie Lennox’s version of Screaming Jay Hawkins’ obsessive gem “I Put a Spell on You” and is packed with songs right through the end credits. Other contributors include Sia, Beyoncé (with a new version of “Crazy in Love”), AWOLNATION and Skylar Grey. Artists were shown scenes and asked to write to them, Mackay says.

The ST features 16 tracks, he adds, and only two—from Frank Sinatra (“Witchcraft”) and The Rolling Stones (“Beast of Burden,” natch)—were licensed rather than created expressly for the project.

He gives much credit to Universal Pictures head of music Mike Knobloch (“he gets the importance of music and how to integrate it), director Sam Taylor-Johnson and music supervisor Dana Sano. “We spent almost 13 months working on the music,” Mackay recalls. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that when the lights come up, moviegoers will be motivated to own the soundtrack.”